


Song of Pain

by chimeradragon



Series: Songs of Taboo [1]
Category: Taboo (TV 2017)
Genre: Assassination Attempt(s), Gen, Ghosts, POV First Person, spoilers s1 e1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-08
Updated: 2019-02-08
Packaged: 2019-10-24 15:07:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17706581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chimeradragon/pseuds/chimeradragon
Summary: POV - James Delaney.The dead are always singing. Except when they're not. And that's usually a bad sign.





	Song of Pain

I felt ill at ease with the feeling of the night I wrapped about myself like a cape. I felt the thrill of the wind as it struck the bared parts of my flesh as I made my way home. I was in no mood to fuss about. Getting out of these fancy clothes would do my soul some good. But the sounds of the dead were grating on me. 

A warning perhaps. 

I could hear steps before me. Lighter than a man's perhaps, but there was the scent of musk on the wind. There was a feeling of danger all around me. The sound of the dead singing lower than usual. They usually only did that when imminent danger was around the corner. They might hold no love for me, but they had work to be done. I needed to be alive to do that work. 

Something moved behind me and I turned but nothing was waiting for me. Then there was a faint sound of metal on metal and the swish of cloth behind me and I spun in time to see a man; dressed like a woman so the veil would disguise him, and the glint of a blade. 

I spun and managed to block the blow from going straight to my heart, but the metal did pierce my flesh. Lower in my abdomen with an upward stroke. The man... assassin the ghosts whispered to me... he drove his blade upward. I pushed back and down to avoid my organs. Lessons I'd learned in the military and from my nights in the jungles had taught me well. 

I pulled my own blade and slashed at my attacker. 

Calves, back, kidneys, arms, anything I could reach. I felt the thrill of the kill moving through my limbs. 

The call of this man's blood drew me in as I managed to get behind him to keep him from moving the blade against my guts. I could smell his fear. A fear he was clearly unused to feeling. 

I knew fear. I'd been buried in fear more than once. 

And I knew pain. Pain my would-be assassin was feeling. 

His neck was bared at this angle and I let my instincts take over. The suggestions of the dead. Their song rose to a fever pitch and I bared my teeth to bite down. I tore through the flesh of his neck like it was nothing. The hot splash of copper on my tongue had my eyes rolling back in my head for a moment. I relished the feeling as the assassin gurgled and his struggles slowed. 

I felt the dead around me as I dropped the body and felt the ground try to reach up for me. I took a step and felt the corruption in the flesh in my teeth. I spat the chunk out onto the dirty cobblestones. The blood would be more than enough to ensure I'd keep going. The strength in his spirit would fuel my own as I stumbled towards the wall of a building. 

Darkness was reaching for me. The Dead were Singing louder. 

I felt my eyelids growing heavy as I hit the wall with a solid thump and slid down, managing to turn so it was my back and not my front dragging down the rough wall. My hands drifted down to the knife still embedded in my gut. 

I needed to find a doctor. Someone to help because I couldn't move the blade without the risk of bleeding to death. The Dead wouldn't approve of that outcome. They hovered close. Animals called in the night, too quiet for the idiots in town to hear. I felt a faint smile on my lips in amusement at the idea of those people in the city coming face to face with some of the creatures they thought long banished from their prim little lives. 

I touched the knife again and felt my legs go numb. It must have nicked something, but I still couldn't risk it. I'd have to rest a minute before heading out. Maybe someone would take mercy on me. I'd just have to see as the darkness took me. 

"Well then, Mister Delaney... that was quite a display," a male voice stated, shaking with fear as I succumbed to the darkness. 

Fate would do with me what she wanted. 

I would do my duty when I next awoke. 

END.


End file.
